Developments for vegetation fluorescence retrieval from spaceborne high‐resolution spectrometry in the O2‐A and O2‐B absorption bands

Abstract

Solar‐induced chlorophyll fluorescence is a weak electromagnetic signal emitted in the red and far‐red spectral regions by vegetation chlorophyll under excitation by solar radiation. Chlorophyll fluorescence has been demonstrated to be a close proxy to vegetation physiological functioning. The basis for fluorescence retrieval from passive space measurements is the exploitation of the O2‐A and O2‐B atmospheric absorption features to isolate the fluorescence signal from the solar radiation reflected by the surface and the atmosphere. High spectral resolution measurements and a precise modeling of the atmospheric radiative transfer in the visible and near‐infrared regions are mandatory. Recent developments for fluorescence retrieval from passive high spectral resolution spaceborne measurements are presented in this work, which has been performed in preparation of the FLuorescence EXplorer (FLEX) mission, which is currently under development by the European Space Agency. A large data set of FLEX‐like measurements has been simulated for the purpose of methodology development and testing. Issues related to vegetation chlorophyll fluorescence retrieval from space, a description of the proposed methodology, initial results from simulated test cases, and general guidelines for the specification of fluorescence retrieval instruments are presented and discussed in this work.